Fear Response Neurons Identified as Potential Anxiety Treatment Target
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for AzumaHazuki:
Fear response neurons identified as potential anxiety treatment target:
Researchers at the University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine have discovered a set of neurons in the mouse brain that appear to control physiological responses to fear, like heart palpitations and pupil dilations. Tests in mice suggest that this region could be a new drug target for anxiety treatments.
[...] Inside the amygdala is the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), a small region previously found to be responsible for physiological fear responses. Within the BNST, the researchers zoomed in even further to a set of neurons that express a neurotransmitter gene called Pnoc.
Pnoc has previously been linked to pain sensitivity and motivation, and in the new study the team imaged the neurons that express it. Using two-photon microscopy, the researchers observed the activity of Pnoc neurons in mice while the animals were being exposed to either pleasant or unpleasant odors.
The team observed that in response to both smells, these neurons would fire and the pupils of the mice would quickly dilate - which can be either an anxiety and[sic] reward reaction, depending on the situation.
In the next experiments the researchers took a more active approach. They used optogenetics, a technique where laser light is used to either activate or silence specific cells - in this case, the Pnoc neurons. Then they measured the physical responses of the mice. Sure enough, activating Pnoc neurons caused the animals' pupils to dilate and their heart rates to increase.
Journal Reference:
Jose Rodriguez-Romaguera. Prepronociceptin-Expressing Neurons in the Extended Amygdala Encode and Promote Rapid Arousal Responses to Motivationally Salient Stimuli, Cell Reports (DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108362)
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